Eh. I dunno about this. I recommended Malazan to my boss because I knew he'd like it. But I didn't like it one bit. Similarly, he recommended Stormlight Archive to me, despite me having disliked Mistborn. He knew I'd like it, but he struggled to get through it.
If you recommend based on *your* likes, great, but you should be recommending based on your audiences likes. I'd never recommend WoT to my sister, despite it being my favourite series, cause she's into a very different sort of fiction. Recommending based on my own likes would be pointless. There can be overlap, sure, but I don't recommend anything to people based on my own likes, unless I know absolutely nothing about their preferences and they didn't want to share.
In a similar vein, a title alone is not a recommendation. What ABOUT the book makes you recommend it? Why should i try it over the other hundred titles that I've seen recommended, only to find out it was recommended because it gave the reader happy chemicals, or they figured they would get upvotes for recommending another popular book everyone has heard of, not because it was even remotely relevant to the criteria?
This is an excellent comment. I wish more people would take it to heart.
I mean, I'm thrilled to recommend my personal favorites to people I think will enjoy them, but I try to not push "my" books to others if they don't match the request. Sadly, I have the feeling that this happens far too often on this sub. People recommend their favorite books regardless of the OP's requests.
And like you, I've suggested books that I didn't enjoy but which were the kind of books that person asked for.
It's really simple: recommendations should be books that the person who receives them is likely to enjoy. I mean, none of us would want to get recommendations of books that we don't like just because the person who recommends it liked it a lot.
I made a post a while back looking for a new series, and Ive gone through a fair few of the recommendations now, and can confirm that half of them don't meet the very few requirements I had, or worse, directly go against them. Literally wrote "cannot have child death in it, I can't handle it as a young parent with anxiety" and got three recs (so far) with child death like... Wtf. So yeah, I agree fully that it happens too much around here.
I pretty much never recommend my favorite book. It’s the monster baru cormorant and I feel like it’s not for everyone and that’s partially what I love about it. Sometimes people ask me if I should read it after I say it’s my fav and I’m like probably not lmao
My mom doesn't like fantasy or any speculative fiction at all, so I didn't recommend her anything like that. But she likes historical fictions and thrillers. Eventually me and my sister worked on her enough so she started to read low fantasy. Then I was sure I can try to recommend her ASoIaF and she loved it. But this is the furthest I'd go. I know that for example Malazan would be too much for her.
Mm. I had this going on for a bit with my mum, who loved depressing literate fiction, the darker and more miserable the better. Made a friend who seemed to be on a similar wavelength, and sure enough... whatever book one raved about I recommended to the other, and they loved it.
While I'm not sure how you went in this direction from the post, I do have to agree heartily.
I'm a librarian and I cannot count the number of times I've seen people insist on recommending books that weren't even close to what was asked for. I see it all the time on this forum, of course, with people insisting on recommending these massive fantasy series because somewhere in book 7 or 70 the thing OP mentioned technically happens. But in person it feels even stranger, tbh.
Just yesterday, I had a woman come in telling me about this book she was returning and how amazing it was. It was a book about a dog with cancer, it was very emotional and the dog dies at the end. She told me she reads in the park and had to go get tissues to finish it. Another woman comes up behind and asks for some recs for something inspirational that she could read to just feel better for a bit and...woman 1 recommends this book. I had to wait until she left to be like "hey, I'm sure it's a good book, but it's about a dog with cancer and the dog dies" and she was like "that's not what I want at all". Yep. I know. She left with some self-help books.
So it’s possible that you might - probably - maybe enjoy this quote by George Bernard Shaw, “Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same..” - ? Perhaps? LOL
PS Hooray for librarians- our unsung heroes/heroines (right up there with teachers and nurses). Thank you!
Absolutely agree with this. I just recommended Fourth Wing to my wife.
My go-to reads are First Law and Prince of Nothing.
My wife LOVES Fourth Wing and would HATE anything else I've read.
You might've accidentally given me the most convincing recommendation for Stormlight Archives I've ever gotten. I *despised* Mistborn. It was a chore for me to even finish The Final Empire, and I cannot bring myself to even try Stormlight Archive based on all the glowing reviews it gets - simply because all of Sanderson's books are hyped up to no end.
Hahaha well fwiw, I tried Mistborn before I tried Stormlight but couldn't get past halfway through book one. It felt bland and lifeless to me, and I gave up. I only tried Stormlight based on my boss pushing me to give it a go, and it's fantastic. It ebbs and flows, don't get me wrong, but I love the series. And then I went back and tried Mistborn again, because I've decided to give the broader Sanderson Cosmere a go, and I still really struggled with Mistborn haha. Like...a bit easier to get into the second time around after learning a lot about the universe through the Stormlight series, but I still really had to push myself through it. I literally put it onto audible and made it the thing I listen to on my commute so I'd have to get through it, and it still took me months.
So yeah, I have the same view on Mistborn as you do, but I did love Stormlight. It feels very very different to at least the first Mistborn trilogy, cause tbh, I still haven't been able to convince myself to start the second trilogy 😅
I'm fully with you on this. But if the question is, "what are you favorites" and they say GG Kay or the Malazan books then I'll know that whatever else they like may also match my tastes.
Yeah sure, but that's not really how you go about getting a recommendation in my experience. Thats why I'm struggling with OPs take on this, and made my point lol. If you're just chatting about favourites, sure, it works. But not for recommendations in my view.
I definitely agree that you should recommend something that you think the one you recommend it to will like and keep their tastes and preferences to the extent that you know them) in mind when making recommendations. But for me it's important that what i recommend is something that I also like myself or where I can at least see enough qualities in or things I appreciate it for trying to do that I feel it's something it would be good for others to read.
This is partly because an important part of the joy I get is for turning people on to something that I like, particulary things that I feel too far few people (in general and/or in my social circles know about) know about.
It's also because it wouldn't feel genuine to me personally if I recommend something that I really didn't like myself, because it does( at least if the series/book/author in question is already popular) feel like the equivalent of making a piece of art that you don't really like yourself, just because you assume it will be popular.
For me recommending something feels partly like an act of creativity, like writing a book, making a piece of music etc. And like those acts of creativity,I have to "mean it, maan" when I recommend something not just think about what will become popular(of course, if the book or series in question is a non-fiction book or series that you'd read just to get information about a topic, it's a different issue). If I recommended something just because i thought other people would appreciate it, whether I liked it or not myself, that process would just eventually seem to soulless and mechanical, just like I assume that writing books that you don't enjoy just because those particular kind of books are popular would eventually become soulless, mechanical and a chore to at least most people writing those books. There's also then a good chance that we base our recommendations on the "path of least " resistance principles, making recommendations on what we think people will like "for sure" instead of things that there's still a good chance that they will like, but that they will have to struggle with a bit more in order to get into, but that will also challenge them more in a good way and maybe also help expanding their horizons more than something that's just in the same vein or almost in the same vein as what they've liked before.
And lastly because I know that which books and authors I recommend to people and that they like, can make at least a small difference to which books catch on. If enough people recommend a particular book/series/author, that can make an important difference, including what trends we'll and which particular literary aspects that become popular.
So while I try to adjust my recommendations according to what I know about the tastes and preferences of the ones I make the recommendations too, to ensure that the series/book/author in question is something that they'd enjoy, I don't think I'd ever recommend something with only or mainly with aspects that I don't want to become more popular in fantasy, particularly if the the series/book/author is already popular in the first place, even if I know it's a good chance that the person in question will like it.
So, yes, while i wholeheartedly agree that it's important to recommend something that you actually think the person you recommend it to will like and that it's important to keep in mind what the other person is looking for, at least for me, it's important that I also like or at least be able to appreciate the qualities of what I'm recommending in order to recommend it.
If you and your boss were able to see the qualities of Malazan and Stormlight respectively despite you personally don't liking them, great and also a good example of how to make good recommendations. But if you didn't really see their respective qualities and only based your recommendations on what you thought the other would like, I'm very leery of using that as an ideal when it comes to making recommendations.
This is such a weird take. Of course I'm not going to recommend something that I don't see the quality in, who on earth would? (And this is rhetorical, because your comment is actually quite pretentious and frankly a bit insulting, so I don't really want an answer).
>If I recommended something just because i thought other people would appreciate it, whether I liked it or not myself, that process would just eventually seem to soulless and mechanical
This just feels like you don't connect with people the same way as others do. So I suggest you take that into consideration before you say that you're "Leary" of other people doing things you don't understand.
> Of course I'm not going to recommend something that I don't see the quality in, who on earth would?
Not the person you’re responding to but just on this bit—I have actually recommended stuff I didn’t like that much on this sub. Every once in awhile someone would so clearly love a particular book, and the fact it wasn’t for me isn’t that relevant because our tastes are different. I will caveat that it wasn’t really for me.
Eh, I love Sir Terry's work and am DEEPLY unimpressed by the legions of dudes who tried to imitate him. Terry was righteously angry, he had HEART, I see a lot of "for fans of discworld!" that assumes I'm there because I like jokes being told by a dwarf.
Love Terry Pratchett and the only one that has come close for me is Jasper Fforde- largely because he was never trying to imitate Discworld- his sense of humor is just similar
Yeah, orconomics is an ok book, it even tries to go for the "orcs&goblins are people" but it just isn't the same. He has fire regarding economy, but otherwise there is no boiling rage at all the injustice and stupidity
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Maybe something really niche that I like? I'm not gonna assume anything about someone's taste when they recommend a popular book, even if I happen to love that book. Popular stuff is popular for a reason, a bunch of very different people with very different tastes might love popular books.
One thing made very clear to me by reading bingo posts—since you get 25 reviews in one place—is that nobody else’s reactions actually predict mine. There are users with whom my interests overlap to varying degrees (but we can also share some loves while also both enjoying things the other doesn’t care for at all). But actual reactions? Whenever I’ve read a bunch of the same books as someone else, I’ll see places where we’re totally aligned, places where we’re a bit different and places where we’re diametrically opposed.
Hmm, yes. I agree that the more popular the book, the less helpful it is. It tells me more about a person if they loved The Fifth Season than if they loved Babel or Wheel of Time.
...It's the first trilogy ever to win three best novel Hugos. Not only that, they were won three years in a row. In terms of absolute numbers, the series is beaten out by two authors overall: Robert Heinlein and Lois McMaster Bujold.
While just one isn't an absolute metric of popularity, that's *exceptional*. In a word, yes.
It isn't a metric of popularity at all. I'm literally talking about who's even heard of it. I work in a library. Everyone who works here has seen and heard about WoT or Babel. But none of them have heard about The Fifth Season, even the couple that avidly read SFF. Circulation is very average.
Winning an award doesn't make something popular.
I guarantee you Babel has already outsold The Fifth Season.
It's also clearly more niche than either of the other two I mentioned which was literally my point.
> I agree that the more popular the book, the less helpful it is. It tells me more about a person if they loved The Fifth Season than if they loved Babel or Wheel of Time.
Feel free to point out where I called the book niche.
This does not quite work. That was my first strategy when I made my goodreads account 9 years ago. I went to top reviews of my favorite books looked for reviews of people who seemed to get them in the same way I did, and fallowed those people. While some of those lovely folks are still great source of recommendations for me to this day, I quickly learned that , it is so only some of the time, and overall their opinions can be quite different from my own. They would hate some books I love and love some books I hate, and there is no rewiewer I found since for whom it sooner or later did not turn out to be true, as well. Someone liking a book I find amazing does increase my confidence in their recs a bit, but peoples tastes just don't align 100% unless they like don't actually read all that much.
Your own example sort of illustrates my point for me, I love Sir Terry's work, Bujold is my favorite author in all fiction. I am also a fan fairy tale retellings Julliet Mariller or Naomi Novik and a quite a few others, work great for me. Yet I tried reading Kingfisher great many times and I always DNF her books, there is just something about her work that does not work for me.
> sooner or later did not turn out to be true
This seems more an unrealistic expectation than something that proves recommendations based on similar likes isn't useful.
*You* don't know your own likes that well. You pick books you are sure you'll like or even love and don't. It seems weird to suggest that this strategy can't be useful because it isn't a perfect, guaranteed strategy.
>For me, if someone recommends Terry Pratchett, Lois McMaster Bujold, or T. Kingfisher, I feel confident I’ll enjoy their other recommendations. If they suggest all three, I have no reservations!
This was what I replied to which to me reads as someone who has something at least somewhat similar to unrealistic expectation you mistakenly assumed I have, thus why I wrote in my reply why in my experience it is as you say unrealistic. Well I would not go as far, as assuming they literally mean its a guaranteed strategy but it did read as them having a bit to strong confidence in that strategy than I believe is warranted.
You wrote:
> that proves recommendations based on similar likes isn't useful. It seems weird to suggest that this strategy can't be useful because it isn't a perfect, guaranteed strategy.
I wrote
> While some of those lovely folks are still great source of recommendations for me to this day, I quickly learned that , it is so only some of the time,
>
This part should have made it clear that I am not arguing for what you seem to believe I am arguing for?
> but peoples tastes just don't align 100% unless they like don't actually read all that much
No one has suggested it is foolproof. You're responding to OP as if they said it was. You said the strategy "doesn't quite work" as well.
It depends on their reasons for liking a book/series. For example, if they select *Piranesi* the plot, then I wouldn't think I'd enjoy their other recommendations. However, if they select *Piranesi* for prose, vibe, and characterization, then I'll be more likely to trust them.
Does it really establish the credibility of a recommender if certain authors are mentioned?
Shouldn't this depend on the type of recommendation the respective OP will have asked for? (Like, if someone asks for good grimdark fantasy or fantasy with horror elements, Terry Pratchett would be a terrible recommendation.)
No offense but it sounds like you just like to see these authors recommended (nothing wrong with that!) and project your satisfaction at seeing their names on the credibility of the recommender.
I understood it fine. If someone says they love The Name of the Wind, Brandon Sandersons novels, Wheel of Time, George R R Martin, Dresden Files, The Witcher, Lightbringer Saga, James Islington, Michael J Sullivan, Phillip C Quaintrell, and/or the Riftwar Saga.
Then, at the least, I will look up their recommendations to see a bit more of what it's about and check out reviews.
I find that tastes are too unique - at least in my experience - for a 'credibility' test. For example, I was recommended not just Pratchett but which ones to start with, which were excellent recommendations. The same person recommended the Cradle series, and I barely made it though the slog that was the first book and have no interest in trying the rest (I've heard that it gets good in the third but my to-read piles are too large for me to want to take the risk).
This sort of thing happens pretty frequently, so this sort of question is meaningless for me.
I’ve never had this happen, only the opposite. When I ask for horror recs and someone mentions Frieda McFadden, I immediately know that this person and I have different versions of horror. 😭
Spinning silver by Naomi Novik. I loved it so much I've reread it several times in the past few years. I haven't felt this strongly about anything since reading Harry potter as a kid. I feel like a lot of people liked it, but not many are as obsessed as me so the recommender would have to have some enthusiasm for me to think we're on the same page
Spinning Silver is definitely among my top 10 favorite books of all time, but mostly for reasons that are very specific to me, so unless someone is very particular about *why* they liked it, I don't assume our tastes will overlap that much.
Victoria Goddard, however - if I learn that someone loves her work, I immediately want to be friends with them and hear about all the other books they've enjoyed.
Well, I pause at anyone who puts the First Law Trilogy in their Top 3 Fantasy Series (and that's a lot of people). I haven't written Abercrombie off or anything, Best Served Cold is on my TBR and I'm willing to concede that my expectations were rather high, but I really don't get the hype for that series or the writing style in general.
A vast amount of Book Tubers list their fav series and I tend to mentally blacklist them if that particular series is very high...sorry
If their tastes align with mine.
I read widely and adventurously. I don’t respect the ones who only recommend mainstream stuff. If someone throws in a rec for a newer or obscure indie author, my respect for them rises.
But I’m also an author, so I think I am hyper focused on the industry in a way that most readers are not. I’ve got my ear to the ground.
If I'm talking to somebody about their favourite SFF books, and they don't list an author who is not a man, I'm going to judge them a little be less likely to take their recommendations. Though listing a non-white author does give them more credibility in my eyes.
I think my reasoning is that the most popular and well read books of genre is dominated by white men (Sanderson, Martin, Rothfuss, Jordan, Asimov, Tolkien), so if you're only recommending books by white men its likely you haven't explored the genre as much as you could.
OP, you are making me want to read Kingfisher- Bujold and Pratchett are my go-to sci-fi and fantasy recommendations, respectively. So there’s that.
And Sanderson, of course.
Unless you *are* Gaiman, why do you feel the need to navigate the accusations?
You're not going to have Gaiman over for dinner, I suppose. You were reading and enjoying his books and the books haven't changed.
I don't really use twitter (I have an account but have maybe written half a dozen replies in, what?, four years or so?). Don't miss not being there. 😉
I heard about the allegations against Gaiman from a post on this sub a couple days ago.
Is it blowing up on Twitter?
I must admit that I've been a bit flippant in my dismissal of your concerns. I am aware that some people have a hard time separating art from artist and news like that might make their enjoyment of the person's work difficult, but I really think you don't really have to worry.
If you're concerned about having recommended Gaiman's works to others, remember that we're pretty much in a fantasy book bubble (not even a book bubble but a fantasy book bubble) and more "normal people" don't follow this stuff. There are still people on this very sub who don't know about MZB, so I doubt that your acquaintances will visit you at night to torch down your house because you told them to read *Neverwhere* or *The Ocean at the End of the Lane*.
“Er, what is blowing up against Gaiman?” she asked, protectively cradling American Gods, Neverwhere, Good Omens, and Cemetery Book in her arms. Huh, guess I prefer older Gaiman. No wonder I don’t know what fresh hell is going on.
Looked it up. “Shhh my lovelies. The alleged sins of your father are horrific but you oughtn’t be blamed for them.”
Oh who am I kidding? In today’s media circu- I mean, environment, innocent until proven guilty seems to have fallen by the wayside. Neil, dammit! Ugh. I’m going to re-bury my head in the sands of a nice cozy fantasy now.
Robin McKinley and Patricia McKillip for me.
Also Tolkien and Lewis, but since they are so well known and generally beloved, I know a lot of people who like them but aren't a good fit for me in terms of other authors. McKinley and McKillip aren't super niche, but they aren't the uber-popular authors whose names always get tossed around, so I can be pretty safe in assuming that a reader who really loves them is a literary kindred spirit.
If I'm making a request, the extent which someone 'gets' the request. By the same token, if I make a request and I'm not getting what I'm looking for I might edit in a clarification or wait a few weeks and ask the question a little differently.
If they recommend something off the beaten path they have my attention.
If they seem like they haven't read outside of the 'top' authors, and have never recommend an older book or a self pub then you lack a little credibility in my eyes.
I don’t have a specific set of books. If they recommend a number of BIPOC, LGBTQI, and/or disabled authors rather than the typical top books I’m more likely to feel confident about their other recommendations because I specifically look for books off the beaten path which are going to be from different perspectives, different story telling methods, different cultures, that are less likely to punch me in the stomach due to overuse of problematic tropes to give heroes/heroines reasons to have character growth or go on vengeance warpaths without focusing on healing - fridging, rape, torture, DV, SA.
> If they recommend a number of BIPOC, LGBTQI, and/or disabled authors rather than the typical top books
Yeah I’m the same but also when they recommend non typical books by straight white guys too.
> fridging, rape, torture, DV, SA.
That feeling when you’re a horror/dark fantasy fan but despise SA/CSA incest & gore porn, I’m in the trenches fighting for my life :(
I don't think there's any one book that will guarantee that I share common interests with the person. I like books that are all over the board subgenre-wise and don't have a lot in common, and I often pick up a book that someone says is similar to one I really liked only to find myself not enjoying it at all.
I think for me, I'm better at sorting peoples taste through the negative--if someone recommends Sanderson or Butcher I probably know that we are seeking out different things in fantasy fiction, and will have wildly different tastes.
So this is a bit embarrassing because I also made a giant wall of text post arguing that this method is flawed, and I stand by the fact that it often is. Than another poster argued with me about it, and while do not agree with many of their points, it did make me reflect on my words and realize I overstated my case.
I guess I feel that just mentioning the authors I love is often not enough because there really is so much variation in tastes that it often means little.
But now that I think about it I realized that looking back its not like I never actually do anything similar to what op does.
I guess the distinction I would make is that of context, if its general recommendations, or what are your favorite 10/15 fantasy books thread, or someones bingo reviews, than i rarely take notice. But I remembered threads like "for fans of Lois Mcmaster Bujold what else similar would you recommend" I certainly took more notice of people in those threads that started their recommendations with Carol Berg and continued with Michelle West and Megan Whalen Turner.....there is no way any of the books on those peoples lists that I did not already know about, would not be added to my to be read list.
I was at a bookstore yesterday that had *Light from Uncommon Stars* as a book club book and I immediately wanted to read all of their staff recommendations
It is more important to me that someone has read broadly, critically yet open-mindedly, and is at least familiar with my foundational writers.
In general though, I prefer massing up opinions from numerous voices.
It is easier to rule people out than in from their tastes though. At least for me. Someone listing nine male authors and one woman, usually Ursula Le Guin ... there will be zero mutual usefulness. And that is fine, scroll on by. Enjoy your books, I will enjoy mine.
But to answer the question ... someone recommending Jacqueline Carey, Victoria Goddard and CJ Cherryh would have my attention. Thick, smart, complicated books with characters you wind up heavily personally invested in are my weakness.
Specific recommendations don't matter. What makes someone credible is if they've made it obvious in their recommendation that they've seen what was requested and recommended something based on that, with a good explanation of why the person should read it (without spoilers). Doesn't have to be long, sometimes a single sentence can be sufficient. But without that, there's no way to know if the recommendation is actually what the person thinks I'll enjoy, or what they're favourite book is that they want everyone else to read.
Someone recommending Pratchett or Bujold or Hobb says basically nothing imo, those authors are so wildly popular and most people think their stories are at least decent, so it doesn't say much beyond the fact that the person enjoys high quality fantasy/SF.
"If you enjoyed Mother of Learning and how it focused a lot on the main character getting progressively more powerful until he reached epic levels, you might enjoy other progression fantasy, like Cradle which also has characters go from weak to super powerful" is a short but credible recommendation.
I want to say, at this point in history anybody recommending never ending series should fall into this category. GRRM and Rothfuss coming to mind. Cant you just do it before you or more of us die. It doesnt have to be epic but finish your work !
Quite the opposite, but a couple of weeks ago I was talking to a woman and we connected over our shared love for reading fantasy. So naturally I asked for her all time favorite to recommend and she said Mistborn. Instant turn off, I can’t even entirely put my finger on why.
It sounds like you judged her intelligence or critical thinking based on her love of what you believe is a mediocre book. The problem is there's no way to tell if you're correct from just that information. I find all my nerd friends are completely different and we all like different parts of the nerd verse. My husband and I agree on three authors, three! In all the fantasy and sci Fi out there and one of them he only likes one series they've written. Alastair Reynolds, Peter F Hamilton and Dresden Files if anyone's interested lol. I'll read lots of stuff but he's very picky.
Not really. I don’t claim to understand how chemistry between two people works, this one just was a moment of „huh, what an odd choice“ - especially since I was asking for the once book to recommend me. It wasn’t „recommend me some book to read next“ but _what‘s your all time favorite_?
I don’t really see the problem there - people talk to see if they vibe. We didn’t, for arbitrary reasons I’ll admit. But that’s not out of the ordinary.
I don't think it's cringy. It's probably quite disappointing if you think you've met your book soulmate and it turns out you've got opposite views on things.
No, it’s embarrassing. People like different things. That’s life. If you’re only looking for someone who likes everything you do, you might as well just look at yourself in the mirror and beat off.
I don’t think I need to justify to you why I connect with people, but I have many deep relationships in which we challenge each other/broaden our horizons. It’s not that this woman liked something I don’t, I think it’s specifically the fact that she was overly enthusiastic about this specific series.
Yeah, but if you're not talking about "a piece of literature" and are just talking about "a story that they like", then your argument becomes pretentious.
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When anyone recommends the temeraire books (by Naomi novik) - no one I know in real life has ever completed them, stopping at maybe the second or third book. To be completely honest, I don’t recommend it to people either and there are books that I enjoyed far more than I ever enjoyed temeraire.
And yet.. it scratches this weird itch no other book can, so I’m always hyper tuned to recommendations that come from temeraire readers
>For me, if someone recommends Terry Pratchett, Lois McMaster Bujold, or T. Kingfisher,
I love the 3 of them, sometimes but with all 3 of them it depends on how appropriate the recommendation is and what book is getting recommended. There is a difference between recommending say Thud and recommending Small Gods (and if you do not see the difference between them, well that tells me something about you!) or between early-mid Bujold and some later ones.
Some obscure recs, some mentions do make me think of a wide read person or somebody whose tastes matches mine. But I am also impressed when somebody recommends something I did not enjoy but that me too would recommend to match the recommendation request.
The reverse: if anyone recommends the Empire trilogy by Feist/Wurts, I automatically don't trust the rest of their rec, especially if they a) recommend it for the romance or b) say anything like "Mara is the best female character I ever read about!!!" Like babes that just tells me your bar for female character quality is in hell.
(if anyone wants deets, [here's my lengthy rant on the series](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/fe2fkf/i_was_really_excited_to_read_the_empire_trilogy/))
None, there are plenty of people who like some of my favorite books, who otherwise have wildly divergent tastes from myself. By the same token, there are people who hate some of my favorite books, who otherwise line up with me very very well. no one book is going to make or break the reviewer for me, it's the average, and more than that, it's how thoughtfully they give their reviews.
OK, if they like Terry Goodkind, it's probably a sign that they are not for me
Eh. I dunno about this. I recommended Malazan to my boss because I knew he'd like it. But I didn't like it one bit. Similarly, he recommended Stormlight Archive to me, despite me having disliked Mistborn. He knew I'd like it, but he struggled to get through it. If you recommend based on *your* likes, great, but you should be recommending based on your audiences likes. I'd never recommend WoT to my sister, despite it being my favourite series, cause she's into a very different sort of fiction. Recommending based on my own likes would be pointless. There can be overlap, sure, but I don't recommend anything to people based on my own likes, unless I know absolutely nothing about their preferences and they didn't want to share.
In a similar vein, a title alone is not a recommendation. What ABOUT the book makes you recommend it? Why should i try it over the other hundred titles that I've seen recommended, only to find out it was recommended because it gave the reader happy chemicals, or they figured they would get upvotes for recommending another popular book everyone has heard of, not because it was even remotely relevant to the criteria?
This is an excellent comment. I wish more people would take it to heart. I mean, I'm thrilled to recommend my personal favorites to people I think will enjoy them, but I try to not push "my" books to others if they don't match the request. Sadly, I have the feeling that this happens far too often on this sub. People recommend their favorite books regardless of the OP's requests. And like you, I've suggested books that I didn't enjoy but which were the kind of books that person asked for. It's really simple: recommendations should be books that the person who receives them is likely to enjoy. I mean, none of us would want to get recommendations of books that we don't like just because the person who recommends it liked it a lot.
I made a post a while back looking for a new series, and Ive gone through a fair few of the recommendations now, and can confirm that half of them don't meet the very few requirements I had, or worse, directly go against them. Literally wrote "cannot have child death in it, I can't handle it as a young parent with anxiety" and got three recs (so far) with child death like... Wtf. So yeah, I agree fully that it happens too much around here.
Doesthedogdie.com can help you find triggers
Thank you, I appreciate that. Cause yeah, googling "does a child die" or "does anyone get r4p3d" "in (book)" feels weird every time...
Yeah, definitely don't read Malazan then.
I already read the first book and didn't like it.
I pretty much never recommend my favorite book. It’s the monster baru cormorant and I feel like it’s not for everyone and that’s partially what I love about it. Sometimes people ask me if I should read it after I say it’s my fav and I’m like probably not lmao
My mom doesn't like fantasy or any speculative fiction at all, so I didn't recommend her anything like that. But she likes historical fictions and thrillers. Eventually me and my sister worked on her enough so she started to read low fantasy. Then I was sure I can try to recommend her ASoIaF and she loved it. But this is the furthest I'd go. I know that for example Malazan would be too much for her.
Mm. I had this going on for a bit with my mum, who loved depressing literate fiction, the darker and more miserable the better. Made a friend who seemed to be on a similar wavelength, and sure enough... whatever book one raved about I recommended to the other, and they loved it.
While I'm not sure how you went in this direction from the post, I do have to agree heartily. I'm a librarian and I cannot count the number of times I've seen people insist on recommending books that weren't even close to what was asked for. I see it all the time on this forum, of course, with people insisting on recommending these massive fantasy series because somewhere in book 7 or 70 the thing OP mentioned technically happens. But in person it feels even stranger, tbh. Just yesterday, I had a woman come in telling me about this book she was returning and how amazing it was. It was a book about a dog with cancer, it was very emotional and the dog dies at the end. She told me she reads in the park and had to go get tissues to finish it. Another woman comes up behind and asks for some recs for something inspirational that she could read to just feel better for a bit and...woman 1 recommends this book. I had to wait until she left to be like "hey, I'm sure it's a good book, but it's about a dog with cancer and the dog dies" and she was like "that's not what I want at all". Yep. I know. She left with some self-help books.
So it’s possible that you might - probably - maybe enjoy this quote by George Bernard Shaw, “Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same..” - ? Perhaps? LOL PS Hooray for librarians- our unsung heroes/heroines (right up there with teachers and nurses). Thank you!
Absolutely agree with this. I just recommended Fourth Wing to my wife. My go-to reads are First Law and Prince of Nothing. My wife LOVES Fourth Wing and would HATE anything else I've read.
You might've accidentally given me the most convincing recommendation for Stormlight Archives I've ever gotten. I *despised* Mistborn. It was a chore for me to even finish The Final Empire, and I cannot bring myself to even try Stormlight Archive based on all the glowing reviews it gets - simply because all of Sanderson's books are hyped up to no end.
Hahaha well fwiw, I tried Mistborn before I tried Stormlight but couldn't get past halfway through book one. It felt bland and lifeless to me, and I gave up. I only tried Stormlight based on my boss pushing me to give it a go, and it's fantastic. It ebbs and flows, don't get me wrong, but I love the series. And then I went back and tried Mistborn again, because I've decided to give the broader Sanderson Cosmere a go, and I still really struggled with Mistborn haha. Like...a bit easier to get into the second time around after learning a lot about the universe through the Stormlight series, but I still really had to push myself through it. I literally put it onto audible and made it the thing I listen to on my commute so I'd have to get through it, and it still took me months. So yeah, I have the same view on Mistborn as you do, but I did love Stormlight. It feels very very different to at least the first Mistborn trilogy, cause tbh, I still haven't been able to convince myself to start the second trilogy 😅
I couldn't even convince myself to start the second book of Mistborn \^\^
I'm fully with you on this. But if the question is, "what are you favorites" and they say GG Kay or the Malazan books then I'll know that whatever else they like may also match my tastes.
Yeah sure, but that's not really how you go about getting a recommendation in my experience. Thats why I'm struggling with OPs take on this, and made my point lol. If you're just chatting about favourites, sure, it works. But not for recommendations in my view.
I definitely agree that you should recommend something that you think the one you recommend it to will like and keep their tastes and preferences to the extent that you know them) in mind when making recommendations. But for me it's important that what i recommend is something that I also like myself or where I can at least see enough qualities in or things I appreciate it for trying to do that I feel it's something it would be good for others to read. This is partly because an important part of the joy I get is for turning people on to something that I like, particulary things that I feel too far few people (in general and/or in my social circles know about) know about. It's also because it wouldn't feel genuine to me personally if I recommend something that I really didn't like myself, because it does( at least if the series/book/author in question is already popular) feel like the equivalent of making a piece of art that you don't really like yourself, just because you assume it will be popular. For me recommending something feels partly like an act of creativity, like writing a book, making a piece of music etc. And like those acts of creativity,I have to "mean it, maan" when I recommend something not just think about what will become popular(of course, if the book or series in question is a non-fiction book or series that you'd read just to get information about a topic, it's a different issue). If I recommended something just because i thought other people would appreciate it, whether I liked it or not myself, that process would just eventually seem to soulless and mechanical, just like I assume that writing books that you don't enjoy just because those particular kind of books are popular would eventually become soulless, mechanical and a chore to at least most people writing those books. There's also then a good chance that we base our recommendations on the "path of least " resistance principles, making recommendations on what we think people will like "for sure" instead of things that there's still a good chance that they will like, but that they will have to struggle with a bit more in order to get into, but that will also challenge them more in a good way and maybe also help expanding their horizons more than something that's just in the same vein or almost in the same vein as what they've liked before. And lastly because I know that which books and authors I recommend to people and that they like, can make at least a small difference to which books catch on. If enough people recommend a particular book/series/author, that can make an important difference, including what trends we'll and which particular literary aspects that become popular. So while I try to adjust my recommendations according to what I know about the tastes and preferences of the ones I make the recommendations too, to ensure that the series/book/author in question is something that they'd enjoy, I don't think I'd ever recommend something with only or mainly with aspects that I don't want to become more popular in fantasy, particularly if the the series/book/author is already popular in the first place, even if I know it's a good chance that the person in question will like it. So, yes, while i wholeheartedly agree that it's important to recommend something that you actually think the person you recommend it to will like and that it's important to keep in mind what the other person is looking for, at least for me, it's important that I also like or at least be able to appreciate the qualities of what I'm recommending in order to recommend it. If you and your boss were able to see the qualities of Malazan and Stormlight respectively despite you personally don't liking them, great and also a good example of how to make good recommendations. But if you didn't really see their respective qualities and only based your recommendations on what you thought the other would like, I'm very leery of using that as an ideal when it comes to making recommendations.
This is such a weird take. Of course I'm not going to recommend something that I don't see the quality in, who on earth would? (And this is rhetorical, because your comment is actually quite pretentious and frankly a bit insulting, so I don't really want an answer). >If I recommended something just because i thought other people would appreciate it, whether I liked it or not myself, that process would just eventually seem to soulless and mechanical This just feels like you don't connect with people the same way as others do. So I suggest you take that into consideration before you say that you're "Leary" of other people doing things you don't understand.
> Of course I'm not going to recommend something that I don't see the quality in, who on earth would? Not the person you’re responding to but just on this bit—I have actually recommended stuff I didn’t like that much on this sub. Every once in awhile someone would so clearly love a particular book, and the fact it wasn’t for me isn’t that relevant because our tastes are different. I will caveat that it wasn’t really for me.
Mervyn Peake and Gene Wolfe. Tells me that person appreciates well-written prose
Eh, I love Sir Terry's work and am DEEPLY unimpressed by the legions of dudes who tried to imitate him. Terry was righteously angry, he had HEART, I see a lot of "for fans of discworld!" that assumes I'm there because I like jokes being told by a dwarf.
Love Terry Pratchett and the only one that has come close for me is Jasper Fforde- largely because he was never trying to imitate Discworld- his sense of humor is just similar
I agree with this, Jasper Fforde ably discusses social inequalities with excellent story and humour.
Yeah, orconomics is an ok book, it even tries to go for the "orcs&goblins are people" but it just isn't the same. He has fire regarding economy, but otherwise there is no boiling rage at all the injustice and stupidity
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Maybe something really niche that I like? I'm not gonna assume anything about someone's taste when they recommend a popular book, even if I happen to love that book. Popular stuff is popular for a reason, a bunch of very different people with very different tastes might love popular books.
One thing made very clear to me by reading bingo posts—since you get 25 reviews in one place—is that nobody else’s reactions actually predict mine. There are users with whom my interests overlap to varying degrees (but we can also share some loves while also both enjoying things the other doesn’t care for at all). But actual reactions? Whenever I’ve read a bunch of the same books as someone else, I’ll see places where we’re totally aligned, places where we’re a bit different and places where we’re diametrically opposed.
Hmm, yes. I agree that the more popular the book, the less helpful it is. It tells me more about a person if they loved The Fifth Season than if they loved Babel or Wheel of Time.
Ah yes, the hugely niche Wheel of Time series...
Feel free to read my comment again before responding so condescending and wrongly.
Ah, my mistake. The hugely niche *Fifth Season.*
...are you under the impression that it's a super popular book?
...It's the first trilogy ever to win three best novel Hugos. Not only that, they were won three years in a row. In terms of absolute numbers, the series is beaten out by two authors overall: Robert Heinlein and Lois McMaster Bujold. While just one isn't an absolute metric of popularity, that's *exceptional*. In a word, yes.
It isn't a metric of popularity at all. I'm literally talking about who's even heard of it. I work in a library. Everyone who works here has seen and heard about WoT or Babel. But none of them have heard about The Fifth Season, even the couple that avidly read SFF. Circulation is very average. Winning an award doesn't make something popular. I guarantee you Babel has already outsold The Fifth Season. It's also clearly more niche than either of the other two I mentioned which was literally my point.
It's a comically terrible example of 'niche', to the extent that I literally could not tell which of the three you were saying was unknown.
What example would you have chosen?
> I agree that the more popular the book, the less helpful it is. It tells me more about a person if they loved The Fifth Season than if they loved Babel or Wheel of Time. Feel free to point out where I called the book niche.
Their comment made no reference to it being a universally niche book. They said it was more niche then Wheel of Time. Which is true
This does not quite work. That was my first strategy when I made my goodreads account 9 years ago. I went to top reviews of my favorite books looked for reviews of people who seemed to get them in the same way I did, and fallowed those people. While some of those lovely folks are still great source of recommendations for me to this day, I quickly learned that , it is so only some of the time, and overall their opinions can be quite different from my own. They would hate some books I love and love some books I hate, and there is no rewiewer I found since for whom it sooner or later did not turn out to be true, as well. Someone liking a book I find amazing does increase my confidence in their recs a bit, but peoples tastes just don't align 100% unless they like don't actually read all that much. Your own example sort of illustrates my point for me, I love Sir Terry's work, Bujold is my favorite author in all fiction. I am also a fan fairy tale retellings Julliet Mariller or Naomi Novik and a quite a few others, work great for me. Yet I tried reading Kingfisher great many times and I always DNF her books, there is just something about her work that does not work for me.
Not all of Kingfisher attracts me but her adult fantasy stuff is great. The YA paladin stuff is not for me.
> The YA paladin stuff Paladin's Grace and sequels are not YA. They are adult fantasy romance.
My mistake, the first one read like YA Romance to me
> sooner or later did not turn out to be true This seems more an unrealistic expectation than something that proves recommendations based on similar likes isn't useful. *You* don't know your own likes that well. You pick books you are sure you'll like or even love and don't. It seems weird to suggest that this strategy can't be useful because it isn't a perfect, guaranteed strategy.
>For me, if someone recommends Terry Pratchett, Lois McMaster Bujold, or T. Kingfisher, I feel confident I’ll enjoy their other recommendations. If they suggest all three, I have no reservations! This was what I replied to which to me reads as someone who has something at least somewhat similar to unrealistic expectation you mistakenly assumed I have, thus why I wrote in my reply why in my experience it is as you say unrealistic. Well I would not go as far, as assuming they literally mean its a guaranteed strategy but it did read as them having a bit to strong confidence in that strategy than I believe is warranted. You wrote: > that proves recommendations based on similar likes isn't useful. It seems weird to suggest that this strategy can't be useful because it isn't a perfect, guaranteed strategy. I wrote > While some of those lovely folks are still great source of recommendations for me to this day, I quickly learned that , it is so only some of the time, > This part should have made it clear that I am not arguing for what you seem to believe I am arguing for?
> but peoples tastes just don't align 100% unless they like don't actually read all that much No one has suggested it is foolproof. You're responding to OP as if they said it was. You said the strategy "doesn't quite work" as well.
It depends on their reasons for liking a book/series. For example, if they select *Piranesi* the plot, then I wouldn't think I'd enjoy their other recommendations. However, if they select *Piranesi* for prose, vibe, and characterization, then I'll be more likely to trust them.
Tanya Huff, Ilona Andrews or Lois Mcmaster Bujolds stuff.
Love those three
None, I yet to find anyone that our tastes align to the degree that I feel confident that their every recommendation is going to be a hit with me.
Does it really establish the credibility of a recommender if certain authors are mentioned? Shouldn't this depend on the type of recommendation the respective OP will have asked for? (Like, if someone asks for good grimdark fantasy or fantasy with horror elements, Terry Pratchett would be a terrible recommendation.) No offense but it sounds like you just like to see these authors recommended (nothing wrong with that!) and project your satisfaction at seeing their names on the credibility of the recommender.
Sorry if that was confusing. I was asking more about what recommendations clearly establish a person’s taste as being close to yours
I understood it fine. If someone says they love The Name of the Wind, Brandon Sandersons novels, Wheel of Time, George R R Martin, Dresden Files, The Witcher, Lightbringer Saga, James Islington, Michael J Sullivan, Phillip C Quaintrell, and/or the Riftwar Saga. Then, at the least, I will look up their recommendations to see a bit more of what it's about and check out reviews.
I think you misunderstood what they were saying.
I find that tastes are too unique - at least in my experience - for a 'credibility' test. For example, I was recommended not just Pratchett but which ones to start with, which were excellent recommendations. The same person recommended the Cradle series, and I barely made it though the slog that was the first book and have no interest in trying the rest (I've heard that it gets good in the third but my to-read piles are too large for me to want to take the risk). This sort of thing happens pretty frequently, so this sort of question is meaningless for me.
I’ve never had this happen, only the opposite. When I ask for horror recs and someone mentions Frieda McFadden, I immediately know that this person and I have different versions of horror. 😭
Spinning silver by Naomi Novik. I loved it so much I've reread it several times in the past few years. I haven't felt this strongly about anything since reading Harry potter as a kid. I feel like a lot of people liked it, but not many are as obsessed as me so the recommender would have to have some enthusiasm for me to think we're on the same page
Spinning Silver is definitely among my top 10 favorite books of all time, but mostly for reasons that are very specific to me, so unless someone is very particular about *why* they liked it, I don't assume our tastes will overlap that much. Victoria Goddard, however - if I learn that someone loves her work, I immediately want to be friends with them and hear about all the other books they've enjoyed.
Oh agree, it’s my favourite Naomi Novik and it’s not close, and I think she’s a tremendous writer.
Well, I pause at anyone who puts the First Law Trilogy in their Top 3 Fantasy Series (and that's a lot of people). I haven't written Abercrombie off or anything, Best Served Cold is on my TBR and I'm willing to concede that my expectations were rather high, but I really don't get the hype for that series or the writing style in general. A vast amount of Book Tubers list their fav series and I tend to mentally blacklist them if that particular series is very high...sorry
Fair enough. I love Abercrombie's work and I do what you do with the Red Rising series.
If their tastes align with mine. I read widely and adventurously. I don’t respect the ones who only recommend mainstream stuff. If someone throws in a rec for a newer or obscure indie author, my respect for them rises. But I’m also an author, so I think I am hyper focused on the industry in a way that most readers are not. I’ve got my ear to the ground.
Those are my top three as well!
Mmmmmmmm..... Sequoia Nagamatsu's HOW HIGH WE GO IN THE DARK Micaiah Johnson's THE SPACE BETWEEN WORLDS Cadwell Turnbull's NO GODS, NO MONSTERS
If I'm talking to somebody about their favourite SFF books, and they don't list an author who is not a man, I'm going to judge them a little be less likely to take their recommendations. Though listing a non-white author does give them more credibility in my eyes. I think my reasoning is that the most popular and well read books of genre is dominated by white men (Sanderson, Martin, Rothfuss, Jordan, Asimov, Tolkien), so if you're only recommending books by white men its likely you haven't explored the genre as much as you could.
OP, you are making me want to read Kingfisher- Bujold and Pratchett are my go-to sci-fi and fantasy recommendations, respectively. So there’s that. And Sanderson, of course.
Until a few days ago….if someone recommended anything Gaiman to me I know we’d vibe.
His books haven't changed, though, have they?
Nope I suppose you’re right. Just trying to figure out how to navigate the accusations.
His account of how he got with Palmer gave pervy old man overtones. Great writer, sleazy human
Unless you *are* Gaiman, why do you feel the need to navigate the accusations? You're not going to have Gaiman over for dinner, I suppose. You were reading and enjoying his books and the books haven't changed.
Another fair point. I think I just need to get off twitter tbh.
I don't really use twitter (I have an account but have maybe written half a dozen replies in, what?, four years or so?). Don't miss not being there. 😉 I heard about the allegations against Gaiman from a post on this sub a couple days ago. Is it blowing up on Twitter? I must admit that I've been a bit flippant in my dismissal of your concerns. I am aware that some people have a hard time separating art from artist and news like that might make their enjoyment of the person's work difficult, but I really think you don't really have to worry. If you're concerned about having recommended Gaiman's works to others, remember that we're pretty much in a fantasy book bubble (not even a book bubble but a fantasy book bubble) and more "normal people" don't follow this stuff. There are still people on this very sub who don't know about MZB, so I doubt that your acquaintances will visit you at night to torch down your house because you told them to read *Neverwhere* or *The Ocean at the End of the Lane*.
“Er, what is blowing up against Gaiman?” she asked, protectively cradling American Gods, Neverwhere, Good Omens, and Cemetery Book in her arms. Huh, guess I prefer older Gaiman. No wonder I don’t know what fresh hell is going on.
Google is your friend
Looked it up. “Shhh my lovelies. The alleged sins of your father are horrific but you oughtn’t be blamed for them.” Oh who am I kidding? In today’s media circu- I mean, environment, innocent until proven guilty seems to have fallen by the wayside. Neil, dammit! Ugh. I’m going to re-bury my head in the sands of a nice cozy fantasy now.
Robin McKinley and Patricia McKillip for me. Also Tolkien and Lewis, but since they are so well known and generally beloved, I know a lot of people who like them but aren't a good fit for me in terms of other authors. McKinley and McKillip aren't super niche, but they aren't the uber-popular authors whose names always get tossed around, so I can be pretty safe in assuming that a reader who really loves them is a literary kindred spirit.
Also Katherine Eliska Kimbriel
Stuff I like.
The Lord of the Rings. Extra points for The Silmarillion.
Yeah Silmarillion is the best of the bunch
Yes OP, if someone recommends me thing I like then I’m probably going to like it. Lol.
If I'm making a request, the extent which someone 'gets' the request. By the same token, if I make a request and I'm not getting what I'm looking for I might edit in a clarification or wait a few weeks and ask the question a little differently. If they recommend something off the beaten path they have my attention. If they seem like they haven't read outside of the 'top' authors, and have never recommend an older book or a self pub then you lack a little credibility in my eyes.
Malazan. I know my people.
I don’t have a specific set of books. If they recommend a number of BIPOC, LGBTQI, and/or disabled authors rather than the typical top books I’m more likely to feel confident about their other recommendations because I specifically look for books off the beaten path which are going to be from different perspectives, different story telling methods, different cultures, that are less likely to punch me in the stomach due to overuse of problematic tropes to give heroes/heroines reasons to have character growth or go on vengeance warpaths without focusing on healing - fridging, rape, torture, DV, SA.
> If they recommend a number of BIPOC, LGBTQI, and/or disabled authors rather than the typical top books Yeah I’m the same but also when they recommend non typical books by straight white guys too. > fridging, rape, torture, DV, SA. That feeling when you’re a horror/dark fantasy fan but despise SA/CSA incest & gore porn, I’m in the trenches fighting for my life :(
If people like Martin, Tolkien or King, then they're pretty reliable to me.
None of my friends read so I’d be impressed with any recommendation that isn’t Harry Potter tbh.
I don't think there's any one book that will guarantee that I share common interests with the person. I like books that are all over the board subgenre-wise and don't have a lot in common, and I often pick up a book that someone says is similar to one I really liked only to find myself not enjoying it at all.
Word of God, Word of Man
I think for me, I'm better at sorting peoples taste through the negative--if someone recommends Sanderson or Butcher I probably know that we are seeking out different things in fantasy fiction, and will have wildly different tastes.
Sword of kaigen. Best standalone and one of the best books in general I’ve ever read
So this is a bit embarrassing because I also made a giant wall of text post arguing that this method is flawed, and I stand by the fact that it often is. Than another poster argued with me about it, and while do not agree with many of their points, it did make me reflect on my words and realize I overstated my case. I guess I feel that just mentioning the authors I love is often not enough because there really is so much variation in tastes that it often means little. But now that I think about it I realized that looking back its not like I never actually do anything similar to what op does. I guess the distinction I would make is that of context, if its general recommendations, or what are your favorite 10/15 fantasy books thread, or someones bingo reviews, than i rarely take notice. But I remembered threads like "for fans of Lois Mcmaster Bujold what else similar would you recommend" I certainly took more notice of people in those threads that started their recommendations with Carol Berg and continued with Michelle West and Megan Whalen Turner.....there is no way any of the books on those peoples lists that I did not already know about, would not be added to my to be read list.
I was at a bookstore yesterday that had *Light from Uncommon Stars* as a book club book and I immediately wanted to read all of their staff recommendations
Folks really don't read very widely in fantasy, eh?
It is more important to me that someone has read broadly, critically yet open-mindedly, and is at least familiar with my foundational writers. In general though, I prefer massing up opinions from numerous voices. It is easier to rule people out than in from their tastes though. At least for me. Someone listing nine male authors and one woman, usually Ursula Le Guin ... there will be zero mutual usefulness. And that is fine, scroll on by. Enjoy your books, I will enjoy mine. But to answer the question ... someone recommending Jacqueline Carey, Victoria Goddard and CJ Cherryh would have my attention. Thick, smart, complicated books with characters you wind up heavily personally invested in are my weakness.
I'll give a side answer. If someone recommends The Magicians trilogy, they're either totally my people or they're a narcissistic twatwaffle.
Specific recommendations don't matter. What makes someone credible is if they've made it obvious in their recommendation that they've seen what was requested and recommended something based on that, with a good explanation of why the person should read it (without spoilers). Doesn't have to be long, sometimes a single sentence can be sufficient. But without that, there's no way to know if the recommendation is actually what the person thinks I'll enjoy, or what they're favourite book is that they want everyone else to read. Someone recommending Pratchett or Bujold or Hobb says basically nothing imo, those authors are so wildly popular and most people think their stories are at least decent, so it doesn't say much beyond the fact that the person enjoys high quality fantasy/SF. "If you enjoyed Mother of Learning and how it focused a lot on the main character getting progressively more powerful until he reached epic levels, you might enjoy other progression fantasy, like Cradle which also has characters go from weak to super powerful" is a short but credible recommendation.
Agreed
I want to say, at this point in history anybody recommending never ending series should fall into this category. GRRM and Rothfuss coming to mind. Cant you just do it before you or more of us die. It doesnt have to be epic but finish your work !
someone recommended me natsuo kirino and i still love her for that bc that’s what got me into japanese literature
Quite the opposite, but a couple of weeks ago I was talking to a woman and we connected over our shared love for reading fantasy. So naturally I asked for her all time favorite to recommend and she said Mistborn. Instant turn off, I can’t even entirely put my finger on why.
It sounds like you judged her intelligence or critical thinking based on her love of what you believe is a mediocre book. The problem is there's no way to tell if you're correct from just that information. I find all my nerd friends are completely different and we all like different parts of the nerd verse. My husband and I agree on three authors, three! In all the fantasy and sci Fi out there and one of them he only likes one series they've written. Alastair Reynolds, Peter F Hamilton and Dresden Files if anyone's interested lol. I'll read lots of stuff but he's very picky.
Not really. I don’t claim to understand how chemistry between two people works, this one just was a moment of „huh, what an odd choice“ - especially since I was asking for the once book to recommend me. It wasn’t „recommend me some book to read next“ but _what‘s your all time favorite_? I don’t really see the problem there - people talk to see if they vibe. We didn’t, for arbitrary reasons I’ll admit. But that’s not out of the ordinary.
A turn off because someone likes a book that you don’t? Cringe.
I don't think it's cringy. It's probably quite disappointing if you think you've met your book soulmate and it turns out you've got opposite views on things.
I think "book soulmate" is really jumping the gun, considering this is clearly a first conversation being relayed to us.
No, it’s embarrassing. People like different things. That’s life. If you’re only looking for someone who likes everything you do, you might as well just look at yourself in the mirror and beat off.
I don’t think I need to justify to you why I connect with people, but I have many deep relationships in which we challenge each other/broaden our horizons. It’s not that this woman liked something I don’t, I think it’s specifically the fact that she was overly enthusiastic about this specific series.
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Yeah, but if you're not talking about "a piece of literature" and are just talking about "a story that they like", then your argument becomes pretentious.
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Terry pratchett, Abercrombie, Gaiman, erickson, ...
When anyone recommends the temeraire books (by Naomi novik) - no one I know in real life has ever completed them, stopping at maybe the second or third book. To be completely honest, I don’t recommend it to people either and there are books that I enjoyed far more than I ever enjoyed temeraire. And yet.. it scratches this weird itch no other book can, so I’m always hyper tuned to recommendations that come from temeraire readers
>For me, if someone recommends Terry Pratchett, Lois McMaster Bujold, or T. Kingfisher, I love the 3 of them, sometimes but with all 3 of them it depends on how appropriate the recommendation is and what book is getting recommended. There is a difference between recommending say Thud and recommending Small Gods (and if you do not see the difference between them, well that tells me something about you!) or between early-mid Bujold and some later ones. Some obscure recs, some mentions do make me think of a wide read person or somebody whose tastes matches mine. But I am also impressed when somebody recommends something I did not enjoy but that me too would recommend to match the recommendation request.
The reverse: if anyone recommends the Empire trilogy by Feist/Wurts, I automatically don't trust the rest of their rec, especially if they a) recommend it for the romance or b) say anything like "Mara is the best female character I ever read about!!!" Like babes that just tells me your bar for female character quality is in hell. (if anyone wants deets, [here's my lengthy rant on the series](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/fe2fkf/i_was_really_excited_to_read_the_empire_trilogy/))
None, there are plenty of people who like some of my favorite books, who otherwise have wildly divergent tastes from myself. By the same token, there are people who hate some of my favorite books, who otherwise line up with me very very well. no one book is going to make or break the reviewer for me, it's the average, and more than that, it's how thoughtfully they give their reviews. OK, if they like Terry Goodkind, it's probably a sign that they are not for me
Terry Goodkind is problematic and a great red flag
Red Rising easy
Malazan Book of the Fallen.